New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg described recent visits to communities in the Rockaways and Staten Island to assess damage and relief efforts in the hardest hit areas of the five boroughs.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... our sympathies are with those who lost their homes and forced to leave because of flooding ... we believe the businesses have been hard hit ... but to many of those who use to ... have gone back to their homes gone back to find the power is still out and many will remain without power in the days ahead ... one of the great she is we have this with cold weather coming ... now we have to make sure that people can stay warm ... and ... among the hardest hit their the Rockaway is in Staten Island ... a lot of places that don't have electricity ... but are going to experience the call ... I'll talk about that in a minute but that is the next big problem for us ... ROC boys yesterday morning and talked with many concerned residents assure them over everything possible to get power back on ... our team has been working with the long Island power Authority which provide select full service ... on the Rockaway is the rest the city is pre much taking care of my content ... we urge them to commit more resources to getting power back ... to the Rockaway is faster and I'm glad to report that we are seeing some progress ... at midnight there was something like twenty five thousand customers in Iraq was without power ... we think it's down to something like nineteen thousand now ... long waits to Goebel going in the right direction ... Micah has agreed to a request and more crews to this job ... that should speed up the process ... they've also delivered ten generators to him on houses of public housing development visited yesterday ... and Wilkinson will continue to provide life with all the support we can ... some twenty five thousand public housing residents you should know live in coastal areas designated as on a ... many of them in metropolis ... so we're going to take care of immediate needs for ... food water watch and safety ... and we've also started to address the process of long term recovery ... it's morning I went to Staten Island ... at Steinour hospital I visited and talked with the city sanitation worker ... who received an electric shock from a downed power line while he was on a sanitation with this morning ... his name is Michael Lou Reed ... his condition is stable in the accident he suffered shows that there is still dangerous conditions out there ... and despite these changes say workers like Michael are out there working on our behalf around the clock ... and they really do deserve our gratitude ... by the way ... will release a new door on Staten Island in his home was severely damaged ... but that did not keep him from serving his fellow New Yorkers and New Staten Islanders ... and he was on the job helping to clean up the debris ... from President John Monaro States and in the Lancet comes venturing out on my walk the streets of Maitland Beach ... we saw some of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy to homes there ... and also the massive cleanup efforts that being led by the Department of sanitation transportation parks ... the NYPD SBNY and other city agencies are also members of the National Guard ... I have a cup of coffee a little while ago with General Tom Boston ... and his team learning from the Army Corps of engineers ... they are helping to pump water and provide a resort power ... they are ... people that know how to deal with disasters and it's great to have them here they're helpful ... we also went to a food distribution center and met with Monty is ... four of them had been there for forty eight hours straight without sleep ... we talk with residents whose homes have been badly damaged ... when inside if you look and see what to the basement looked like ... we visited the awaits is Christian Center where volunteers were handing out food and supplies I thank them for their efforts ... we have a lot of runners who come here to run the marathon ... and now live on sharing ... sharing stuff delivering doing everything we needed ... Stephen L was were getting help from city workers ... and since the social agencies also the staff of the Federal emergency Management Agency ... city service volunteers and National Guard are also there ... and that the disastrous assistants ... service centers ... hard at work providing food water a flashlight batteries blankets household items ... another critical supplies to people who are still without power ... yesterday people who ... were without power and he also came to Miller field to ... catch a place the shuttle bus for shelter where they can spend the night safely ... this evening and buses at the city's five disaster assistance centers in several locations in Manhattan the Bronx ... well again to help people get to shelters ... and again this evening NYPD control offices would use ... loudspeakers urge people to go where they can be worn safe and tell them how to get there ... helping people people on about our initially Knight's is also become a focus of the food distribution centers were operating in communities without electric power ... the site's good food and bottled water to residents Sephardic communities ... what still without electric power ... to all sites are distributing blankets and many of the spring flashlights and baby supplies ... such as disposable diapers and baby formula ... and we ask you to please bring bags if you go to get some of these items and bags to carry stuff away ... trial sites in the open today some of today's teams won and are scheduled to close at five ... many of them have stayed open much later when people were lined up ... they'll be open tomorrow from noon until four remain open ... as long as they needed in the days ahead ... there are more than a thousand NYC service volunteers involved in this cleanup ... in cleaning storm drains and other work about half of them are going into it and or the affected communities to checking in Oklahoma ... letting everyone know when they can go to stay one night ... that it is an enormous outpouring of people the donating clothing ... and food ... I think at this point the centers have more than they can really realistically ... distributors we need more we can certainly put out another ... call for ... help but to what would be the most helpful is donations the Mayans fund to ... help the or and to them will be a believes that money to ... help people get back on their feet ...